At the moment of death all is over; man is fixed for ever in grace or hostility to God; his destiny is determined and is unchangeable. This is necessarily known to the person most concerned; his state is manifested to him and his future lot. This is the particular judgment which takes place at each man's death, and which anticipates that of the last day. Such is the general belief of the Church from at least the days of St. Augustine down to the present. This accords with Holy Scripture: "It is appointed unto men once to die, and after this the judgment" (Heb. ix. 27). "It is easy before God in the day of death to reward every one according to his ways. . . . In the end of a man is the disclosing of his works" (Eccli. xi. 28, 29). Those who have been snatched from the jaws of death often say of that critical moment that their "whole life flashed before them." Every impression made upon the brain during life is of a sudden vividly reproduced, and the conscious soul takes them all in. In almost a literal physical sense the book is opened, and the writing upon it stands forth legibly. This perception of facts, with the knowledge of their true nature and their effects, taking place in the upper world in the sight of God, this is substantially the judgment and sentence on the soul. You are accumulating every day the materials for that judgment. It may come at any moment. What record have you already written?
